


Gut Feeling

by and-by-the-tree (countingthenights)



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-03
Updated: 2012-04-03
Packaged: 2017-11-02 23:45:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/374693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/countingthenights/pseuds/and-by-the-tree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Waya learns that his gut feeling isn't as accurate as he thought. Really, you'd have thought that playing with some people all the time would have made their playing styles distinguishable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gut Feeling

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by hostilecrayon. Waya, "when he feels it". The drabble ran away from me. Sorry.

It began as a simple NetGo game. But hell, that ‘sakurapetals12’ played a mean game of speed Go. Waya barely managed to squeeze out a win against her (it was a girl, right? No self-respecting guy* would actually use a screen name like that, right?) but it was a good game.

The next time they played, she slowed down a whole lot but played a solid game that ended with her resignation nonetheless. Then the third time, he won because she took a risk and opened on tengen. So they started chatting and played a few more games before she had to log off. She said she wasn’t a pro, and he could believe it – her games were inconsistent, almost suspiciously so but interesting in spite of it. They agreed that sushi was better than ramen. She didn’t like listening to Ayumi Hamasaki, and neither did he. And that was basically it.

She said that she would be helping out at the Go event on Sunday, and he was counting on it. Waya would prefer not to believe that he had been too out of social circles to know if any strong insei had been coming up the ranks, but all signs seemed to point to it. Well, he was assigned to do teaching games anyway, so there was a good chance he’d find out who this ‘sakurapetals12’ was. He’d probably recognize her if they played a game or two.

Midday, and Waya was beginning to look forward to the end of the event. Granted, most of the old fogeys were there to play the ~dazzling new talent Shindo~ but that didn’t mean that Shindo didn’t foist them off on his fellow pro whenever he could. After playing three guys in a row who all happened to be really sore about losing with a 4-stone handicap, he discreetly sidled over to the game table eight seats away from Shindo.

That was when Fuku found him. “Waya!” the insei called cheerfully.

Waya quickly shushed him, and put him in a headlock for good measure. He cast a glance to see if Shindo had noticed him escaping alone. His luck held, apparently, because Shindo was still engrossed in his 3 simultaneous games.

“Waya, let’s play.” Damn that Fuku, when did he get out of that headlock? But sure, playing Fuku would be more fun than every other game he played the whole day. Besides, he was a whole lot better at dealing with speed Go now.

One game of speed Go later, Nase popped out of nowhere just as he was eyeing the crowd around the ~dazzling new talent Shindo~ and deciding that he wanted to shift a few more tables down. “Hey, Waya-kun, play me too!” Not that he minded, but a few seconds later would have been nice. He had the feeling that the next time he played Shindo he was going to deliberately play unconventional hands for no reason other than to mess with his head.

But Nase was already waiting for him to nigiri, so he didn’t really have a choice there.

She resigned at yose, by the time which Waya could already feel the disapproving glares that were being sent in his direction from 8 tables away.

Of course, by this time he was already half-expecting someone else to show up, so Honda’s appearance did little to faze him. In retrospect, alarm bells should have gone off in his head. At that time, though, he just asked, “Nigiri, or do we just play?” He had been playing white against Nase.

When Honda opened on tengen, he knew for sure.

He should have noticed that ‘sakurapetals12’ was only ever online on Saturday evenings. That, and the fact that the shiny new computers specifically for NetGo were installed in the public area of the Ki-in last month.

*says the guy who uses the name of a video game princess.


End file.
